This paper proposes the third great baseline inversion in the history of physics. Galileo corrected Aristotle's baseline (rest → uniform motion): the machinery of "sustained force for motion" dissolved. Copernicus corrected Ptolemy's baseline (Earth stationary → Earth moving): epicycles dissolved. We correct Einstein's 1917 baseline (static universe → expanding universe): dark energy (Λ) dissolves. The central argument begins with standard cosmology's own analogy. The Friedmann equations were derived from the escape velocity condition. But a rocket that reaches escape velocity turns off its engine and coasts forever — no continuous fuel required. The cumulative cost of escape is finite (GMm/R) and the cost rate vanishes (dE/dr = GMm/r² → 0). The Big Bang was the engine. It fired once, 13. 8 billion years ago. Since then, the universe has been coasting on inertia. Dark energy is the ghost of a misread analogy. The underlying error is a baseline assumption invisible for a century: current cosmology treats the static Minkowski spacetime as the zero-cost default, and requires dark energy to explain why the universe expands. We invert this. Expansion is the zero-cost state (Cₑxpansion → 0 as R → ∞). Static configurations cost energy (Cₛtatic = GM²/R > 0, always). The lazy propagation principle — developed in the companion paper v4. 0 — selects the zero-cost state as the natural default. Expansion needs no explanation. Stasis does. In the expanding baseline: - Gravity is resistance to expansion: g = aₑxpansion − aₐctual = H₀r − aₐctual- The flat galactic rotation curve (g ∝ 1/r) emerges from spherical geometry in the expanding baseline — an independent derivation of the v4. 0 result- E = mc² is the energy cost of maintaining mass at rest in an expanding universe- The equivalence principle (mᵢnertial = mgravitational) is the identity of two resistances to baseline departure, no longer a mysterious coincidence- MOND's empirical scale a₀ ≈ cH₀ is the natural acceleration of the expanding baseline — the scale at which gravity and expansion balance- The observable universe radius equals the Schwarzschild radius of its total mass (rₛ ≈ rH) as the critical balance condition, not a coincidence- The Hubble tension is the difference in baseline deviation between early and local universe- DESI's w (z) ≠ −1 is predicted: Λₐpparent (t) = (8πG/c²) ·ρfeedback (t) evolves as voids grow- Observed accelerated expansion is weakening deceleration, not a new energy field- The Big Bang is a laziness threshold violation (rₛ > dₘax) ; inflation is baseline recovery- Cyclic cosmology without black holes: feedback builds structure, lazy propagation grows voids, uniform state is unstable, new threshold violation begins new aeon Einstein's 1915 field equations without Λ already gave an expanding universe. The equations were correct. Einstein added Λ in 1917 because he assumed the static state should be the solution — the Aristotelian instinct applied to cosmology. The 1998 reintroduction of Λ repeated the same assumption. Both Λ's are epicycles. No new physics is required. Einstein's original equations are sufficient. The universe was never dark. The assumptions were. Companion paper: Gravitational Flux Transport Networks v4. 0 (dark matter resolved by geometric correction Aₑff = 4πHr).
JongJin Ma (Tue,) studied this question.